US authorities are investigating if the Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed in a shootout was a follower of controversial Australian Muslim cleric Sheik Feiz Mohammed.

A YouTube page with the user name Tamerlan Tsarnaev features religious videos, including one by the Sydney-born sheik titled And They Say, It's Only Sunnah, and a clip where the sheik deplores storybook boy wizard, Harry Potter, and complains that cartoons on TV "glorify nudity".

Sheik Feiz founded the Global Islamic Centre in Liverpool in 2000 and gained notoriety worldwide for his teachings, including blaming women for being rape victims.

Policeman killed at MIT, sparking manhunt

A police officer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was shot to death on Thursday night at the school's Cambridge campus, touching off a manhunt for a suspect or suspects in a community on edge just days after the Boston Marathon bombing. Follow us at http://twitter.com/photosSMH Photo: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Boston residents Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, were identified by the FBI in security footage walking through the crowd of spectators at Monday's Boston Marathon carrying backpacks and just hours later, a wild shootout and police chase left the older brother dead.

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The younger brother is in custody after a day-long manhunt ended with his arrest.

A YouTube user with the name Tamerlan Tsarnaev posted a video playlist which included the teachings of Sheik Feiz.

Controversial Sheikh Feiz claims to preach the word of Islam.

In the anti-Harry Potter clip, which Tamerlan Tsarnaev registered a "like", Sheik Feiz tells a story about visiting a house where Muslim children are watching a Harry Potter movie and the father describes it as "harmless fiction".

Authorities have not confirmed if the Tamerlan Tsarnaev who posted the videos is the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, but are scouring through any piece of information to determine why the brothers would want to bomb the marathon.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev added two videos five months ago to the playlist titled Terrorists, but each video was deleted and has the message: "This video is no longer available."

Another video, titled The Emergence of Prophecy: The Black Flags from Khorasan, begins with: "The prophet said when you see the black flags coming from the direction of Khorasan, you will join their army. That army has already started its march."

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19 Apr
One of the Boston bomb suspects reportedly had explosives strapped to his chest when he was killed in a shootout with police and the other is on the run, as chilling pictures emerged of one of the men moments before the blasts.

19 Apr
A police officer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was shot to death on Thursday night at the school's Cambridge campus, touching off a manhunt for a suspect or suspects in a community on edge just days after the Boston Marathon bombing. Follow us at http://twitter.com/photosSMH